Official Craig Fitzgibbon

Milkshark

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did he? from where we were sitting he just wandered in and left albert unmarked
He came in because Ramien was defending about a metre inside who he was marking.

If Katoa doesn’t come in, there is a huge hole.

Ramien had no need to come in either, his inside defenders were already marked up well.
 
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What changes can you make to address individual defensive decisions long-term other than dropping the player?
None that I know of. That's why I'm asking. At what point do you expect the coach to start making those decisions?

I don't think we are quite there, but if we see another 2-3 shitty performances from that left edge over the next month I'd be making changes.
 
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Is Price still the defensive coach? Still comes under Fitz’s charge but Price has usually had pretty good defensive structures.

I’d like to see how we go when Nicho is back but the Moylan/Talakai issue isn’t going to fix itself as it’s on the other side of Nicho.

Now, I can’t believe I’m doing this, and agreeing somewhat with @Wizard but the only way to strengthen that side is have Trindall there instead of Moylan.
 

Wiz

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Is Price still the defensive coach? Still comes under Fitz’s charge but Price has usually had pretty good defensive structures.

I’d like to see how we go when Nicho is back but the Moylan/Talakai issue isn’t going to fix itself as it’s on the other side of Nicho.

Now, I can’t believe I’m doing this, and agreeing somewhat with @Wizard but the only way to strengthen that side is have Trindall there instead of Moylan.
It’s not a shock to agree with me anymore ..

At this point it’s now a shock if someone doesn’t agree with the wiz
 
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Is Price still the defensive coach? Still comes under Fitz’s charge but Price has usually had pretty good defensive structures.

I’d like to see how we go when Nicho is back but the Moylan/Talakai issue isn’t going to fix itself as it’s on the other side of Nicho.

Now, I can’t believe I’m doing this, and agreeing somewhat with @Wizard but the only way to strengthen that side is have Trindall there instead of Moylan.
The problem is Moylan getting isolated in that structure. I don't think many halves make the 1 on 1 tackles he's been missing. I don't think Tricky saves any of them.
 

Wiz

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The problem is Moylan getting isolated in that structure. I don't think many halves make the 1 on 1 tackles he's been missing. I don't think Tricky saves any of them.
It’s hard to say because Moylan’s been really ineffective on the line in defence and what it will do is cause Sifa to move in and potentially create an ever bigger hole outside

Teams will target Moylan every week because it’s obvious he’s got glaring trouble one on one
 

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It’s hard to say because Moylan’s been really ineffective on the line in defence and what it will do is cause Sifa to move in and potentially create an ever bigger hole outside

Teams will target Moylan every week because it’s obvious he’s got glaring trouble one on one
Talakai also doesn’t have the lateral speed required to shift from covering Moylan to marking up again on his own man.
 
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It’s hard to say because Moylan’s been really ineffective on the line in defence and what it will do is cause Sifa to move in and potentially create an ever bigger hole outside

Teams will target Moylan every week because it’s obvious he’s got glaring trouble one on one
I think what we were seeing on our line is our defenders 'manning up' and jumping the start to try and close down the play / their man. The problem ends up being that our defence is getting dragged around and out of shape, and smart attackers like Souths and Canberra are able to use that to expose or isolate players.

I'd say that's a tactical matter rather than deficiencies in our guys for the most part.

You've got to give it to those teams though... Good game plans well executed. We do them same pretty often.
 

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The real problem here is not any one player, changing a couple of players won't change things

The real problem is our errors and discipline, has been for years, we scored 4 tries yesterday, for a supposedly top 4 team that's enough to win any game

We still scored 4 tries even though we barely got into any structure and rhythm. Always going to be hard to defend when you're constantly stuck in your half of the field

There was a brief period yesterday where we looked good, uele and hunt were going forward and we muscled up in defence and scored 2 tries of the back of that. We were disciplined and dominated

The problem is we need to be seeing that more then 10 minutes a game.

And don't underestimate the confidence just having nicho in the side will make, just brings the side more belief
 

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Also I wished we scored soft tries like we let in, how easy teams score is a massive problem, it's a bit easier to accept when a team has to work hard for a try but most of the tries this year are wooden spoon material defence
 

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The problem is Moylan getting isolated in that structure. I don't think many halves make the 1 on 1 tackles he's been missing. I don't think Tricky saves any of them.
Yep, at least one I have looked back at (was a week 1 try) Talakai and Ronnie did the right thing marking their players but Williams was too slow to come over and help Moylan (Teig was at marker).

Tries yesterday (as they look to me)

  • 1st Ramien too far infield which sucks Katoa in a bit (Trindall has Nikora with him to defend Wighton, doesn't need Ramien to hedge his bets). Ramien covers his man in time so perhaps his fault, perhaps Katoa should have trusted him more. Also was 2m forward which allowed winger to run onto it past Katoa. Every chance we defend a legal pass To blame: Ramien or Katoa (with a dash of ref)
  • 2nd one was Kaufusi fault, went to sprint out at Wighton deep and Starling threw clever short ball to Horse. Horse actually put a decent spin move on to beat Blayke one on one and was over before Kaufusi could recover to assist. To blame: Kaufusi (although if pass goes deep his action is great)
  • 3rd was all good ball play by them, Horse (ballplaying) and a CHN decoy got our line to stall and then slide hard. Little shimmy from Timoko froze Moylan to arrest his slide and neither Wilton nor Talakai was in a position to assist. Wilton maybe could have but he bit at the same shimmy as Moylan. Maybe a little more hustle from Kennedy could have helped hold it up. To blame: not really anyone
  • 4th looks like a great pass by Starling, put Horse on the outside of Nikora who had come up fast to meet him. Trindall watched what was happening a moment too long and only gave himself the chance to throw an arm out. Hunt was too slow to get over and help after doing the right thing defending the tight decoy runner - big prop though, that happens. Would need a wider view, Kennedy perhaps should have been between Hunt and Nikora instead of on short side, especially as Fogarty and Wighton were on long side. May have allowed Nikora to be the extra step over to close the gap. To blame: maybe minor error by both Tricky and Kennedy

TBH watching them back, these were more good play by them than a massive deficiency by us.
It's easy to watch it back and say X should have stood here instead of there etc, harder to get that right 100% of the time live.

Easiest way to stop half (or more) of those tries would be not to give away cheap field position as much.
 
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Yep, at least one I have looked back at (was a week 1 try) Talakai and Ronnie did the right thing marking their players but Williams was too slow to come over and help Moylan (Teig was at marker).

Tries yesterday (as they look to me)

  • 1st Ramien too far infield which sucks Katoa in a bit (Trindall has Nikora with him to defend Wighton, doesn't need Ramien to hedge his bets). Ramien covers his man in time so perhaps his fault, perhaps Katoa should have trusted him more. Also was 2m forward which allowed winger to run onto it past Katoa. Every chance we defend a legal pass To blame: Ramien or Katoa (with a dash of ref)
  • 2nd one was Kaufusi fault, went to sprint out at Wighton deep and Starling threw clever short ball to Horse. Horse actually put a decent spin move on to beat Blayke one on one and was over before Kaufusi could recover to assist. To blame: Kaufusi (although if pass goes deep his action is great)
  • 3rd was all good ball play by them, Horse (ballplaying) and a CHN decoy got our line to stall and then slide hard. Little shimmy from Timoko froze Moylan to arrest his slide and neither Wilton nor Talakai was in a position to assist. Wilton maybe could have but he bit at the same shimmy as Moylan. Maybe a little more hustle from Kennedy could have helped hold it up. To blame: not really anyone
  • 4th looks like a great pass by Starling, put Horse on the outside of Nikora who had come up fast to meet him. Trindall watched what was happening a moment too long and only gave himself the chance to throw an arm out. Hunt was too slow to get over and help after doing the right thing defending the tight decoy runner - big prop though, that happens. Would need a wider view, Kennedy perhaps should have been between Hunt and Nikora instead of on short side, especially as Fogarty and Wighton were on long side. May have allowed Nikora to be the extra step over to close the gap. To blame: maybe minor error by both Tricky and Kennedy

TBH watching them back, these were more good play by them than a massive deficiency by us.
It's easy to watch it back and say X should have stood here instead of there etc, harder to get that right 100% of the time live.

Easiest way to stop half (or more) of those tries would be not to give away cheap field position as much.
Good summation mate, and I agree with what you have said. Where we are falling down a lot is our line speed in general play. Too often we are just standing back waiting for them to come to us before making a tackle. Again opposing teams are making 50 or 60 metres in their sets meaning they are on the front foot and have better field position. In contrast we seem to still be pushed back or sideways in tackles, the opposition are always up on us quickly and we hardly make any metres. Our enthusiasm and desire seem to be below par compared to other teams. I know it was hot yesterday but it was the same for Canberra and it did not affect them.

To me, Nikora was the only one with any grunt in defence for us yesterday.
 

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Good summation mate, and I agree with what you have said. Where we are falling down a lot is our line speed in general play. Too often we are just standing back waiting for them to come to us before making a tackle. Again opposing teams are making 50 or 60 metres in their sets meaning they are on the front foot and have better field position. In contrast we seem to still be pushed back or sideways in tackles, the opposition are always up on us quickly and we hardly make any metres. Our enthusiasm and desire seem to be below par compared to other teams. I know it was hot yesterday but it was the same for Canberra and it did not affect them.

To me, Nikora was the only one with any grunt in defence for us yesterday.
That's the issue I wrote about a few weeks ago.
 
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